Judge rejects Trump bid, rules hush money trial will begin on Monday

A New York judge on Friday tossed one of former President Trump’s final remaining pathways to avoid his imminent hush money trial, rejecting his bid to delay the proceedings over “prejudicial” pretrial media coverage. 

Judge Juan Merchan ruled that Trump’s trial will go forward Monday with jury selection, rejecting defense arguments that the barrage of media coverage around the trial has prejudiced potential jurors.  

“Defendant appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality,” Merchan wrote in the four-page ruling. 

The ruling marks the fourth time this week that a judge has rejected a Trump attempt for a last-minute delay of jury selection, which would mark the former president’s first criminal trial. 

Trump’s lawyers insisted the former president could not receive a fair trial in Manhattan this year, re-upping their demand to delay the proceedings until after this year’s election. Trump has looked to delay all four of his criminal cases so Trump can first try to retake the White House, which would halt the indictments. 

In a motion last month, Trump’s lawyers argued that extensive reporting on his legal woes – only expected to increase as the trial date nears – prevented a fair trial. They cited a media study and polling conducted at the direction of Trump’s team suggesting most Manhattan residents already believe Trump is guilty.  

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) office in opposing the delay request questioned the reliability of Trump’s data but also said it suggested the opposite conclusion — that a fair group can be selected through proper jury selection procedures. 

“Defendant simply cannot have it both ways: complaining about the prejudicial effect of pretrial publicity, while seeking to pollute the jury pool himself by making baseless and inflammatory accusations about this trial, specific witnesses, individual prosecutors, and the Court itself,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. 

Trump’s legal team also pointed to remarks made by two of the state’s expected star witnesses, ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen and porn actress Stormy Daniels.  

And the lawyers claimed that the timing of the Wednesday perjury sentencing of Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper, ex-Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, was “manufactured” to prejudice Trump in his own case. Weisselberg was sentenced to five months for lying to state lawyers in the business’s civil fraud trial. 

“[N]o fair and impartial jury can be selected in this County at any time in the near future, including in April of this year. Therefore, the Court should adjourn the trial date until the prejudicial media coverage subsides,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in court papers. 

Trump faces 34 charges of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made by Cohen to Daniels to keep the porn actress quiet about an alleged affair with then-presidential candidate Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty.